4-H, Girl Scouts, students team up for day of service

"I can finally sit on my porch and enjoy the nice weather," Evelyn Jones said as a truck-full of members of the Friendship Valley 4-H club packed up their supplies.

Mary Butler, Abe Buddish, Aimee Ostermeyer and her brother Jacob helped to clean up the patio of Jones' Basehor town home.

"I'm just not able to do this kind of stuff like I used to," Jones said. "It's such a lovely day to have this done."

Saturday was a lovely day for more than 125 volunteers spanning from Pleasant Ridge to Basehor who came to help clean up more than 80 sites around the county for Youth Service Day. Leavenworth County 4-H member teamed up with local Girl Scouts, students from the University of St. Mary, friends and family members to dedicate a day of service to their communities.

About a dozen teens began coordinating the event in January. Together they wrote a grant to the Ewing Kauffman Youth Advisory Board and began figuring out the details for service project. They use the grant money allocated to them by the board to buy supplies, which help them to better homes for senior citizens in the area.

The goal of the annual community service event is to get people to come out as family to help serve the community.

"We want to give something back," said Beth Hecht, the Leavenworth County youth agent for the K-State Extension and Research office. "We're here to help and not wanting anything back."

The Leavenworth County 4-H clubs have been participating in youth service day for the past five years.

In the past, the youth volunteers have cleaned up the county after a tornado hit and helped kick off Walk Kansas with a health fair in Leavenworth. This year they decided to help senior citizens in the area again.

"It not just the fact that they are helping senior citizens, but they are learning life skills that they will take on with them after 4-H," Hecht said.